Eighteen years ago the first Kick Butts Day was organized by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Today, more than 1,000 events are held by students in their schools and communities to speak up against Big Tobacco. These student activists are working to raise awareness of tobacco use and deceptive marketing practices by the tobacco industry, to encourage their peers to stay tobacco-free and to “urge elected officials to take action to protect kids from tobacco.” Although this Wednesday, March 20, is devoted to this fight, everyday is a good day to get the message out against tobacco.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids website has a wealth of information to help students plan Kick Butts Day, including activities to do, and how and why to contact the media in their area to promote their activity. The site also explains how to share pictures. They also supply information on how students can apply for mini-grants through the Campaign’s partnership with the United Health Foundation.

Last year members of the Palm Beach County Health Department and the Tobacco Partnership of Palm Beach joined Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, FL. Students arranged 88 shoes (one for each Flordian who died from tobacco use each day), displayed posters and handed out information to the baseball fans prior to watching the World Series winning St. Louis Cardinals. Roger Dean Stadium helped get the tobacco message across by displaying the Kick Butts Day logo banner on the field and on the video display board each time a player’s stats were shown. The crowd went wild! Of course it could have been because a raccoon was running loose under the bleachers, but the Kick Butts Day message was pretty exciting.

On Wednesday. March 20, Roger Dean Stadium will once again host a Kick Butts Day and members of SWAT will be out in force taking flavored tobacco surveys and getting the tobacco message to baseball fans before watching the Miami Marlins host the Washington Nationals. Hopefully, the raccoon will stay home.

The phrase “Kick Butts Day”, the above logo, and its derivatives, are trademarks of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Click here for more information on Kick Butts Day.